This study focuses on understanding the experiences of bereaved South Asian family caregivers living in Canada. Findings suggest that South Asian caregivers face several challenges and that there is a need for a more culturally sensitive palliative approach to care. / The South Asian population faces several challenges when receiving palliative care, including language barriers, unawareness of resources, and poor cultural awareness among health care providers (HCP). However, little is known about the needs of South Asian family caregivers in Canada. The purpose of this study is to understand the experience of bereaved South Asian informal caregivers, who cared for a family member in their last year of life. An interpretive descriptive design was used. Eleven participants were recruited by referral through a community hospice and a community health centre. Participants were South Asian informal caregivers and at least two months bereaved. Audio-recorded one-on-one interviews were conducted followed by a thematic analysis of the transcripts. Five themes were identified to describe the experience of bereaved South Asian informal caregivers: transforming perceptions of life and death, the influence of culture on the experience; the challenges of being a caregiver; coping with the challenges of care-giving; and getting support. Caregivers expressed feeling a sense of duty to their family members and were reluctant to utilize long-term care homes or hospices. The perceived hierarchy of HCP roles also affected their experience. In reflecting on their experiences, caregivers had a deeper appreciation for life and were more willing to talk about death and dying. The experience of South Asian family caregivers is complex with several underlying cultural influences. This study has important implications in improving the delivery of culturally sensitive palliative care and developing supports that address the challenges experienced by caregivers in the South Asian community. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The South Asian community faces many challenges when receiving palliative care, including language barriers and health care providers (HCP) who do not understand the South Asian culture. However, little is known about the needs and experiences of South Asian family caregivers. In this study, South Asian caregivers of family members who recently died described their experience of being a family caregiver. Caregivers had a strong sense of duty to their family members and were against moving their family members into long-term care homes or hospices. Their understanding and views of HCPs’ roles affected their experiences. Caregivers also had more appreciation for life and wanted to talk about their wishes for their own death with their family members. The findings of this study can help improve the delivery of palliative care for the South Asian community and can help HCPs better support their South Asian patients and families.

Background. The consensus among Canadians with regards to end-of-life preferences is that with adequate support the majority prefer to live and die at home. Purpose. To compare quality indicator (QI) rates for home care clients receiving palliative and end-of-life care prior to and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. A retrospective population-based cohort design was used. Sixteen QIs informed by existing literature and a preliminary set of QIs recently evaluated by a modified Delphi panel were compared. Data were obtained from the over 280-item interRAI PC instrument for Ontario home care clients for two separate cohorts: the pre-COVID (January 14th, 2019 to March 16th, 2020) and COVID cohort (March 17th, 2020 to May 18th, 2021). A propensity score analysis was used to match on 21 covariates, resulting in a sample size of 2479 unique interRAI PC assessments per cohort. Alternative propensity score methods were explored as part of a sensitivity analysis. Results. After matching the pre-COVID and COVID cohorts (using nearest neighbour matching), five of the 16 QIs had statistically-significant differences in the QI rates. The two alternative propensity score methods produced slightly different results with fewer statistically-significant differences between the cohorts. However, in examining the effect sizes, the results of all propensity score methods were found to be not clinically meaningful. High rates of the prevalence of shortness of breath with activity, no advance directives, and fatigue were observed in both cohorts and across all three propensity score methods. Discussion. This study is the first to examine differences in QI rates for home care clients receiving palliative and end-of-life care before and during COVID in Ontario. Key limitations in interpreting the results include a limited understanding of the typical variation in QI rates over time and reliance on the comparison of a single proportion (the QI) in judging potential differences in quality. Importantly, a strength of this study was that these QIs focused on outcomes of care and were mainly symptom-focused as aspects of high-quality care valued by home care clients and families and in contrast to previous studies focusing on structure and processes of care. These QIs also indicated how frequently quality concerns may be occurring for those receiving palliative and end-of-life home care. Conclusion. It appears that QI rates did not change over the course of the pandemic in this population. Future work should be directed to understanding the temporal variation in these QI rates, risk-adjusting the QI rates for further comparison among jurisdictions, provinces, and countries and in creating benchmarks to project acceptable rates of different QIs. / Thesis / Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Background: Palliative care aims to improve the quality of life for patients with limited time remaining. In the transition to end-of-life care, the complete focus is on relieving symptoms and easing the patient's pain. It has emerged that patients experience inadequate communication from nurses during their hospital stay, while nurses perceive insufficient knowledge regarding conversations with relatives. Engaging with relatives' experiences at the end of life contributes to a greater understanding of their preferred approach. Aim: To create an overview of relatives' experiences in palliative care. Method: Involves a general literature review that included eight qualitative and four quantitative articles. Results: The articles results pointed to three main themes: the importance of communication for relatives, the impact of the care environment on their palliative care experience, and how the illness affected life outside of caregiving. Conclusion: Insufficient support and communication were crucial factors in relatives the end-of-life experiences. Positive health outcomes were observed in relatives receiving support, information, and discussions in the end-of-life stage. Relatives experienced that the attitude of nurses, influenced their well-being, leading to difficulties in balancing everyday life while maintaining strength in front of the patient.

Yes / A planar dual-polarized phased array is proposed for 5G cellular communications. The array has the properties of dual-polarization, wideband and quasi end-fire radiation, which is printed on one side of a single-layer substrate. The design contains two 8-element sub-arrays including horizontally polarized end-fire dipole antennas and vertically polarized end-fire periodic slot antennas, employed on the PCB ground plane of the 5G mobile platform. Both sub-arrays provide wide bandwidth to cover 28 and 38 GHz (promising 5G candidate bands). The -10 dB impedance bandwidth of the proposed CPW-fed dipole and slot antennas are 26.5-39.5 GHz and 27.1-45.5 GHz, respectively. Moreover, for -6 dB impedance bandwidth, these values could be more than 20 GHz (24.4-46.4 GHz for the dipole antenna) and 70 GHz (22.3-95 GHz for the slot antenna). The fundamental characteristics of the proposed dual-polarized 5G antenna array in terms of the impedance bandwidth, realized gain, polarization, radiation pattern, and beam steering are investigated and good results are obtained. The clearance of the proposed dual-polarized 5G antenna array is less than 4.5 mm which is sufficient for cellular applications. / This work is partially supported by the InnovationsFonden project of Reconfigurable Arrays for Next Generation Efficiency (RANGE), AAU Young Talent Program, and European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016SECRET-722424.

This work investigates entry barriers and approaches for facilitating end-user web application development with the particular focus on shaping web programming technology and tools according to end-users' expectations and natural mental models. My underlying assumption and motivation is that given the right tools and techniques even nonprogrammers may become successful web application developers. The main target audience for this research are "casual" webmasters without programming experience - a group likely to be interested in building web applications. As an important subset of web applications I focus on supporting the development of basic data collection, storage and retrieval applications such as online registrations forms, staff databases, or report tools. First I analyze the factors contributing to the complexity of web application development through surveys and interviews of experienced programmers; then I explore the "natural mental models" of potential end-user web developers, and finally discuss my particular design solutions for lowering entry barriers, as embodied by a proof-of-concept development tool, called Click. Furthermore, I introduce and evaluate the concept of "Design-at-Runtime" - a new technique for facilitating and accelerating the development-test cycle when building web-based applications. / Ph. D.

Guardrails are a key safety feature of modern roadways. Collisions with many roadside hazards, e.g. trees, poles and culverts, can be dangerous and guardrail prevents many crashes with such hazards. However, using guardrail safely and effectively is a challenging problem in itself. This research examined two aspects of the problem: 1) assessment of the injury risks posed by guardrail itself; 2) determination of appropriate guardrail length. When controlling for other factors, light truck / van / sport utility vehicles (LTVs) showed injury odds 3.9 times greater in end terminal crashes compared to guardrail face crashes, while cars showed no significant increase in injury odds. Additionally, the odds of injury in frontal end terminal crashes appeared to be between 3.9 and 5.0 times lower when the terminal design was compliant with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 350 crash testing protocol, compared to non-compliant designs. Rollover occurred in 10 % of all frontal guardrail crashes, and was initiated by the guardrail in roughly 46 % of instances. The evidence indicates that end terminal contact increases rollover odds by 6.9 times compared to guardrail face contact for LTVs, but not for cars. NCHRP 350 compliance of end terminals was not observed to have any significant effect on rollover propensity. In side-impact crashes with guardrail, end terminal crashes represented only about 25% of crashes but accounted for more than 70 % of the injuries sustained. End terminals compliant with NCHRP-350 may be about five times as safe as non-compliant designs, but the difference appears to be overshadowed by the high degree of risk involved in striking any narrow fixed object with the side of the vehicle. A somewhat larger sample appears necessary to make this finding significant at the 95 % confidence level. Only about 20 % of rollovers in non-tracking guardrail side crashes are initiated by contact with the rail; 80 % are initiated by some subsequent contact. Those rollovers which are rail-initiated appear to be about twice as likely to be initiated by a terminal as by the guardrail face. Cars showed odds of minor to severe injury 3.6 times greater than LTVs in end terminal crashes. End terminal designs compliant with NCHRP 350 were not observed to carry significantly different odds of minor to severe injury than non-compliant end terminals. The findings control for driver seat belt use, rollover occurrence, terminal orientation (leading/trailing), control-loss and the number of impact events. Rollover and non-use of seatbelts were observed to carry much larger increases in risk than end terminal type. For cars, electronic stability control (ESC) reduces odds of fatal crashes with roadside barriers by about 50 % For LTVs, ESC reduces barrier fatality odds by about 40 %. Based on the effectiveness levels observed in this research, it is estimated that ESC could prevent about 410 out of 1180 possible barrier-related fatalities per year by 2028, when 75 % of the fleet is estimated to be equipped with ESC. The study findings suggest that ESC significantly reduces road departures into roadside barriers, and/or that ESC changes departure conditions so that barrier crashes have less severe outcomes. This research has compared the current standard procedure for computing guardrail length of need (LON) with 'departure corridors' based on real-world road departure trajectories. Due to the current procedure's simplified treatment of road departure geometry, LON recommended by the current procedure becomes very conservative for hazards located closer to the roadside, and less conservative for hazards located further away. By contrast, the departure corridor technique developed in this research provides a known, precisely defined level of protection which remains the same for different hazard offsets. Departure corridors can be made for any desired level of protection, and the technique provides flexibility in how protection may be defined. Most importantly, the departure corridor technique is fundamentally more realistic than the current standard procedure and gives LON recommendations which provide protection levels that can be easily communicated to policy makers and other stakeholders. / Ph. D.

This dissertation examines the relationship among practices and policies of waste/ing and economic structures to make visible the implications of vehicle disposal policies for environmental policy and theory. Consequently, I attempt to build upon the small body of literature that is now critically engaging with waste production and resulting actions/inaction in the form of policies of management. In doing this I use waste as a lens to examine the interrelationships among environmental degradation and economic and political structures. Further, I examine these phenomena in relation to a physical object, the automobile, to add materiality to abstract notions of waste as it relates to both the political and the economic. Through vehicle recycling policies, I analyze how underlying economic structures in contemporary capitalism result in specific responses to the "problems" of waste as well as how the related responses, or "solutions" perpetuate an un-ecological industrial system which severely restricts the possibilities of making substantial change in the production of environmental harms. / Ph. D.

"Nothing endures but change" - Heraclitus. Buildings are designed and built to house a specific program for a set period of time. The end of a building's life marks a change in its use. In today's building practices, some building owners opt to demolish an entire building prior to constructing a new one. Unfortunately, this world-wide attitude results in the production of millions of tons of waste every year and is not an ecologically sustainable practice. However, as green building methods become more valued in today's society, building owners and designers are becoming more conscious of buildings' end lives. Construction methods are increasingly involving concepts of designing for disassembly, wherein parts and materials can be easily taken apart for reuse or recycling. Such practices are vital in minimizing the unnecessary production of construction waste. Everything on earth exhibits change. This thesis explores the development of a newly constructed building and its transformation at the end of its life into a new building. The project consists of two designs; the program of the first was predetermined while the program of the second was chosen by the committee at the concluding stage of the first design. This thesis seeks to develop a position on architectural design and construction methods that acknowledges the fact that buildings are not permanent objects and that they will, at some point in time, change. / Master of Architecture

This research has been aimed to introduce larger moment carrying connections for any type of buildings, in particular the metal building industry. A total of four connection configurations, namely eight-bolt extended four wide, eight-bolt extended stiffened, six bolt flush unstiffened and twelve bolt extended unstiffened, have been investigated. The last two configurations are proposed whereas the first two configurations have been tested before, but the design procedures need to be validated against the test results. Design procedures, namely yield line analysis and bolt force models, were proposed to calculate moment capacity for end-plate yielding, moment capacity at bolt rupture with prying action and moment capacity at bolt rupture without prying action. The calculated values from these procedures were compared with the values obtained from the experimental test data available (whether from the literature or from this testing program). The experimental data from already tested configurations, eight-bolt extended four wide and eight-bolt extended stiffened, was analyzed. It was concluded that for the eight-bolt extended four wide configuration, the experimental values matched with the calculated values. For the eight-bolt extended stiffened configuration reasonable match was found between the experimentally obtained data and theoretically calculated values only for shallower depths. Hence, it was concluded that two deeper tests need to be performed for this configuration. A full-scale testing program was conducted for ten specimens covering three configurations. The two new configurations (six bolt flush unstiffened and twelve bolt multiple row extended unstiffened) were designed for a shallow and deep beam depth and the behavior of each depth observed for a thin end-plate and a thick end-plate respectively (four tests for each configuration). Also, two deep beam tests, one each for thick and thin plate behavior, were done for the eight-bolt extended stiffened configuration. Based on the comparison, it was determined whether the predicted values were in reasonable agreement with the experimental values or not. The design procedures for both the new configurations appear to be validated for a range of design parameters. The calculated moment capacities for bolt rupture, based on the nominal material properties, were found to be safe when compared with the experimentally obtained moments. The calculations for end-plate yield moments was within ±10% of the experimental yield moment. Also, for the deep tests for eight-bolt extended stiffened the yield line analysis seems to be a valid model and the bolt force model appears to be safe in comparison to the experimental values. / Master of Science

A cost effective method of rollover mitigation in vehicles is presented. The method was designed so that some of the system states were measured by sensors that are already available on most vehicles and so that other states could be measured with relatively low cost sensors. Also, the control algorithm was designed to be implementable using a series of look up tables and computationally efficient equations to enable the use of low-cost controller platforms. These look up tables and equations can be modified to change the conservativeness of the method as well as to configure the method for use on almost any 4-wheeled vehicle. Lastly, the proposed mitigation technique was designed to be directly implementable with existing vehicle hardware. To develop this method, a vehicle model was created using several advanced computer packages including SolidWorks 2008™, MATLAB ®, Simulink®, and SimMechanics™. Once created, the model was outfitted with virtual sensors that represent data from realistic sensor types. A detection algorithm was designed around the hypothesis of a stability boundary utilizing the sensor data to detect impending rollover. Finally, a mitigation algorithm was designed to limit throttle and braking upon impending rollover. This algorithm was defined using the basic principles of end-stop control, but was adapted to work appropriately with this scenario. To conclude this research, two simple maneuvers were used to verify the effectiveness of this system to mitigate vehicle rollover. This research was government sponsored and in some instances utilized secured data. Due to the nature of this material, some data has been omitted from this document. / Master of Science